So it's been a while since I've made an entry here, and it's not because nothing interesting has happened. Instead, it's mostly about being lazy and partially because of technical issues. When last I visited LJ, I was in the midst of a trip to Twinsburg, OH and Charliecon. I had last been there a few years ago and it had been a lot of fun staying with Chelle and Todd and hanging out with their friends. Soon after the last Charliecon, the patron and namesake of the event ended up shipping out for a 2 year stint in the land of sand and camels. If I recall, he spent most of the time in Egypt, though I could be misremembering here. Charlie didn't make it back to the states until around a year ago, making the Charliecon I attended the first in three years.

Before I go any further, I should apologies for the fact that there will be no pictures of any sort in the following entry. It just so happened that Shelley was flying out to Seattle the same weekend and wanted to borrow my camera. I figured she would have more interesting pictures to take there and it's not like the odds of me doing anything interesting with any of the pictures I would take was better than 3 to 1 against.

I started my trek driving out to Twinsburg on the Friday before Memorial Day, having opted for driving because of my pathological cheapness. There were flights available and Chelle even suggested them given the wear and tear I would go through having to spend 7-8 hours sitting in the car. Not to mention, as I had recent painful experiences to remind me from the trip to Origins, the leather seats in the car I was driving are very uncomfortable for my condition and produce quite significant pain issues over time. I had tried to solve the problem on the way back from Origins by stealing a pillow from the hotel I was staying at but found to my displeasure that sitting on a pillow made it so that I was too tall for the seat. I ended up having to recline the seat to a ridiculous degree in order to see out the front windshield which made me feel like I was luge'ing down the highway at 80 miles per hour. All in all, the less said of the trip the better.

AS for the con itself, it was a lot of fun and I ended up trying quite a few games I normally wouldn't. Left to my own devices, I usually avoid word/party/trivia games like the plague but I ended up trying quite a few of them and found it entertaining if occasionally frustrating. One particular game had been manufactured in 2003, which added a whole degree of unexpected difficulty as you had to frame your answer with the time warp in mind. It's amazing how many trivia answers will change with time, not the least of which were 'top 10 spoken languages worldwide', 'top 10 visited countries', and 'top 10 food allergies'. Apparently the whole gluten thing had let to really take off back 7 years ago and helped chug me toward an ignominious defeat. I did however make up for it with a shockingly good result in Apples to Apples, especially given I was at a disadvantage not knowing the people playing all that well. The winning adjectives were also pretty spot on and I do have a short video of it somewhere I'll post later once I figure out where my flip mino went.

All in all, the entire weekend went pretty spiffy. Chelle, Todd and I also had dinner at that Mongolian BBQ place that we went to back in Columbus during origins. Their local franchise had jumped on the weird fusion wagon to an even greater degree and there were oddities like ravioli's available for adding to your bbq. I also have an extended video of this somewhere, which will hopefully also be available one I located the Mino. The trip ended with a final lunch at Cracker Barrel on Tuesday and then the long drive home.

It could have been worse, and it got so after I got back. The trip was fine but once I returned home, things really went to pot. I've run across the worst stretch of pain I've experienced in at least a year or so and I've been popping meds like candy. Even then it's not a complete fix for things. Que sera, sera I guess.

I'll try to update a little more often and it was good to hear form you too.